This coach was built for British Railways (Western Region) in 1950 by Metropolitan-Cammel Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd to a Hawksworth design.
It was converted for work on permanent way trains by the gutting of the guards compartment and luggage area to form a galley and dining room.  One of the compartments became a boiler room and the rest sleeping accommodation.
It was rescued from Cardiff by a private buyer who took it to the West Somerset Railway with the intention of restoring it to a fictitious composite layout giving 64 third class seats.  Unfortunately he was unable to complete the task and offered 2180 for sale.  Being of GWR design and reasonably sound it was purchased by a London Group member for the Trust.  Now 276 is in traffic (though not completely finished) this is the next London Group project, though the speed of restoration will depend on funding.  There has been an interlude where GWR Covered Goods 95979 was rebuilt to be a stores vehicle for this project.
The current proposal is to rebuild it as a GWR Buffet, since we already have enough brake coaches and no GWR refreshment coach.
When complete 2180 will form part of the Great Western train with 6515, two "Excursion Coaches" 1285 & 1295, Hawksworth First/Third Brake 7377, Compartment coaches 536 and 1645, Full Brake 276 and Ocean Saloons 9111 "King George" and 9116 "Duchess of York".

August 2007
Work on the restoration of 2180 has finally started!
Whilst the coach is general in pretty good condition we do have to totally reskin it.  Unlike 276 2180 doesn't appear to have been reskined in the past or if it has then the original screw holes were used.  We too will be reusing the old holes except along the bottom where the screws have failed totally.  The sheets will have the screws in the correct place because we're going to replace the bottom wooden infill.  There is only one reason for this; ROT!
Water has run down inside the panelling and completely rotted away the steel fixings for the wooden verticals.  Unlike 276 all the bolts have punched out of the wood because they haven't rotted however they are no longer holding the body to the chassis.
We are going to have to replace these items totally which means blowing off the old plates and riveting on new ones.  This is a new skill for coach work having previously been limited to locomotives and will mean assisting the main workshop staff in the task.  Once done they should last for at least another 60 years.

September 2008
Work on the new brackets has at last started and the first batch was assembled over the weekend of 14/15 September using a jig fabricated earlier this year.  The first couple of brackets were taken to the coach to confirm the location of the holes and, given that all was OK, the rest were made.  The brackets were then finish welded and  bolted into position on the coach as a temporary measure.
Having done this the side of the coach no longer moves!
They will be unbolted and painted just prior to riveting down.
In order to do this the vacuum pipe that runs along the chassis rail will have to be removed.

October 2008

Over the weekend 11/12/13 October 2008 the brackets we'd made earlier were painted and the chassis needle gunned to remove the old paint and any scale and then painted in preparation for riveting.
Below there are two short videos of the process. Note: These take a little while to download and are noisy; we wore ear defenders!
This half of the coach is now properly attached to the chassis for the first time in many years.
ince W2180 is currently stabled next to the workshop it has been decided to complete the riveting so the Ashburton end of the river side of the coach has now been stripped of its lower panels in readiness for our November working weekend when these brackets will be exposed and, hopefully, removed.
We'll then do the Ashburton end of the coach so the whole end is complete.

March 2009
16 March 2009

7 May 2009
Following working on the Thomas weekend we heve spent the rest of the week changing the extension plate at the Ashburton end of the coach.
This plate is as badly corroded as the side brackets but supports four of the six verticals so the entire end cladding had to be removed.  This allowed the composite verticals to be dismantled so the securing bolts could be punched out.
The new plate has been delivered profiled and predrilled only requiring us to weld on the brackets.
The corner posts have their own brackets which are specials and have been fabricated by the SDR Works.  Due to the cramped conditions the plates were rivetted up first and then the special brackets welded on so the location could be guaranteed.
The end of the coach body only requires new bolts and more paint before we can consider replating.

Over the AGM weekend we continued to strip down the Staverton side of the coach so we have now cleared the entire chassis rail on this side.
Some of the posts had been repositioned by the previous owner so we removed those we could along with all the original brackets which we'll be replacing next time.
We will be re-instating the posts to their original locations though we are reducing the number of doors as part of the change of use for the coach.

We have now completed the rivetting of the brackets on the Staverton side of the coach and started on the remaining section of the Buckfastleigh side.
Some of the verticals have been bolted back but a damaged door post needs to be replaced first.

We have now completed the rivetting of the brackets on the Buckfastleigh side so only have the Totnes vestibule left to do.
We are optomistically hoping to complete this at our November working weekend so 2010 will see us removing the roof and repairing the side post top brackets.
Once we've done these we will be able to complete the framework repairs in readiness for the panelling.

The new season has started with work moving up the coach to the roof.
All Hawksworth coaches have a fundemental fault with the gutter design where ash and other debris lodges in the joint at the bottom and corrodes in both directions eventually piecing the roof causing it to leak as can seen from below.
Depending on cost we may replace the lower edge with stainless steel since the rest of the roof is generally sound.  The normal repair is obvious but even this had been repaired on 2180!.
Now the cant rail has been exposed it is clearer how much of it we will need to replace.  The cant rail is a special section so we will be making the replacement in-house.